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Sunday, April 1, 2012

Happy National Poetry Month 2012!

April is one of my favorite months because every one's attention shifts to an often overlooked and under-appreciated genre of children's literature--poetry. Poetry written for children is actually great fun. The majority of it is humorous if not downright silly. I try to incorporate poetry as often as I can into my story times and programs. I order poetry books for my libraries and recommend them to parents once they arrive.

This will be the second year I've done a poetry story time. Last year, I called it that and the attendance was low. This year I'm disguising it by its theme and calling it "It's Raining Cats & Dogs Story Time."

I'm also hosting two book spine poetry programs for teens and one for tweens. The picture you see above is my first attempt at a book spine poems. In addition, I'm putting together an outreach story time on poetry for pre-kindergarten through second grade. I know I'm going to use some riddle poetry collections, but I haven't finished the planning yet.

At one of my libraries, first, second, and third graders visit the library once a month because their school (small, private) doesn't have a library. I'll be giving them an introduction to poetry. I'm even thinking of coming up with a game of poetry tag for them too play (thank you, Sylvia Vardell, for the idea!).

I'll be posting my program plans to my storytime site as soon as I get them planned. I'm hoping to post them by the end of next week so others can make use of them if they wish. The plans may change a bit as I present them at all my libraries.

I'm very excited about Sylvia Vardell's new book The Poetry Teacher's Book of Lists. I've already ordered my copy and it should arrive sometime next week.

Here at What Is Bridget Reading?, I'll be posting poetry reviews all month. Stay tuned! And you can access any of the past poetry reviews I've posted by clicking Poetry or Verse Novels in the sidebar.

In addition to my programs and reviewing, I'm also going to attempt to write a poem every day during April. Ambitious, I know, but it's been far too long since I've written anything besides program plans and book reviews.

I'll also be reading other's special poetry month posts. Hopefully, there will be a full schedule of what's going on in the Kidlitosphere up soon.

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About Me

I am the Youth Services Librarian for a Regional Library in North Carolina. I present programs, develop collections, & much more for four libraries. When I'm not planning programs or ordering books, you'll find me reading, watching movies, and crocheting.